Monthly Archives: February 2015

Although the arrival of a new year often focuses on looking ahead, it comes on the heels of the holidays, a time for family and treasuring shared past moments. A few years have passed since I moved away from home for college and then work, but within seconds of pulling into the driveway I almost feel as though I’m back in high school. Hugs from your parents never change!

This year while visiting my mom’s family in Rhode Island, a friend of my uncles happened to stop by. He has known them for a long time, and instantly recalled one time that he took my uncles and mom out sailing. Isn’t it funny how we can remember a single day? Family and friends, no matter how long or short a time we spend together, fill in our reel of memories.

On to food: the family friend generously gave us some littleneck clams that he had collected that day. And by some, I mean a lot. I mean look at this stack of them!

We decided just to steam them and eat them with a simple dipping sauce. Serve them with a side of your choice – we complemented it with rice and roasted vegetables. We managed to finish off almost the entire batch between just three of us! So consider yourself warned.

What is one of your favorite family or childhood memories?

Eat up and stay warm! Cheers, Jen

Ingredients:

littleneck clams

for dipping sauce:

1 tbs butter

1 tbs soy sauce

1 clove garlic – crushed

Instructions:

Clams

Let clams soak in fresh water for about 20 minutes to release sand, then pick clams out of sandy water and scrub shells until clean.

Place a colander in a large pot and fill the pot with water. The water level should not be not above the bottom of the colander – you want to steam, not boil the clams.

Heat the water to boiling, then put the clams in the colander.

Steam for about 10 minutes, and transfer all clams that have opened to a serving dish. Discard those that do not open. Since we had a large number we removed them in batches as they opened, which took weight off of the clams at the bottom and allowed them to pop open when ready.

Reserve some of the steaming liquid at the bottom of the pot to use as a (salty) dipping sauce.